Difficulties of Digital Interface as a Community College Student
As of March of 2020, students across the United States were made to quarantined in place and moved their learning onto online platforms. I found myself like many other Americans lost when it came time to help with any form of technology, let alone any program’s interface that was vital to learning material, readings and final grades. This struggle seemed especially apparent with the students I tutored at the community college level, due to their lack of prior preparation on certain interfaces because the quarantine was so sudden. However, the general public’s interactions with specific programs lead me to research more information with how this focus would benefit students in the long run. When classes began again after summer break, the community college students were still struggling to understand a majority of their program’s interfaces, leading me to believe that the issue was not due to the suddenness of the pandemic, but the shortage of information on such interfaces. For the purposes of this reading, interface will be defined as the digital means in which we interact with school-based programs.
The particular educational institutions that belong under the category of community college would best be suited to help tackle these issues as they service a majority of the general public. However, like many colleges, there is not a required course to help manage all different forms of interfaces that are vital to college completion. Educational institutions, such as 2-year community colleges are capable of highlighting the importance of navigating through interfaces, however if ignored these institutions run the risk of causing determinantal outcomes to their attending students. The community college demographic has untimely had the largest range of the general population, and through the diverse groups of people in attendance, it exemplifies what could be understood from their commonality to the larger community. These different views on interface can also lead to a starting point in the spaces that are meant to be inclusive. Moreover, students are also expected to understand specific interfaces that rarely have any sort of corresponding explanation. However, the misuse of such necessary interfaces then hinders the student’s rate of completion as these problems cause larger constraints that eventually lead to students dropping out. Community colleges response to their struggling students should be to add a corresponding course to incoming attendees that would offer reliable information that would help them navigate through relevant interfaces during their academic career.
The Community College Readiness Demographic: The Students Who are Most Affected by Digital Interface
Community college students come from all walks of life, and like the category of institution emphasis, it benefits those in the nearby community. These institutions have a responsibility of inclusion to all students, and while their acceptance rate is typically the reason why they boast this inclusive core ideology, it does not hide issues relating to courses that would help those in marginalized backgrounds. Students who do fall under the scope of these backgrounds often struggle the most and therefore end up failing the courses (Selfe& Selfe, 484). This is due to accessibility and their lack of technological preparation concerning interface in any educational settings. Students who come into community college are thrown into a technology driven worlds of different interfaces, specifically when they are solely online, and with colleges casually ignoring who and why students fail, it can be clear why there are issues with students not having larger successes in these settings. In the article “Challenges and Opportunities for Improving Community College Student Success” Goldrick-Rab argues “The practice of separating noncredit basic skills instruction from being the provision of academic college coursework is common and affects large number of students. Many are older adults from disadvantage background” (Goldrick-Rab, 446). “Noncredited basic skills” are defined as coursework that is needed but not required that would greatly benefit students in need. The coursework intention is to be more conscious and inclusive with students grappling with interface in the college’s programs. Noncredited basic course would give students in the need an option to reach out to the institutions in a comprehensive way that would reflect the school’s core values. However, for many students, they will eventually work through interfaces that are required for them to: register for classes, write their papers, interact with professors, view assignments etc. But community college in general have seemed to miss the mark when creating courses that would otherwise produce an understanding for interfaces. Goldrick-Rab emphasizes the statistical problem community colleges have nationwide with these noncredited basic skills, “Nationally, 57% of 2-year institutions rank the academic preparations of their entering student as fair or poor” leading to a larger issue of helping those student who fall through the cracks in a public institutions (Goldrick-Rab, 446).
Struggling students who often fall into a misrepresented scope due to their “race, gender, [and/or] socioeconomic status” add another layer to the already difficult set up community colleges have when looking at college readiness (Selfe(s), 484). Students attempting to further their education end up grappling with the difficulties of their own lives while also navigating an interface they were dropped into and expect to find assignments to topics and courses they are also unfamiliar with. Regardless of student’s chosen class format, interfaces are interjected through their learning when asked to learn from the ever expanding interweb in a face to face, hybrid, or online course. Accessibilities and demographics in these settings therefore further inhibit their success in college completion when different platform’s interfaces are not appropriately introduced by a community institution.
How are Students Dealing with Various Digital Platforms: An Example of Difficult Interfaces Using Microsoft Word
While community college students enter their institutions with inappropriate preparations, these students are still required to learn interfaces that will eventually become a necessity regardless of their chosen major. Interfaces like college portals to access grades, or pay tuition, or course management systems to keep up with online learning. However, one interface that follows students throughout community college and beyond is the chosen writing platform for many different institutions: Microsoft Word. While there has been a rise in the use of Google Docs and Apple’s Pages, professors still seem to lean more towards Word for writing purposes in educational institutions. The program itself is always offered when enrolled in any community college via a student’s email. However, as Microsoft and different institutions push students towards the program in order to heed their success, there is no required information that students need in order to utilize the program. Professors however are inclined to expect newly enrolled students to figure out how to use Word’s interface for stylistic purposes, like MLA or APA format for their assignments. The relationship that students have created with these types of required interfaces have then made the online version of writing that much more difficult, and therefore have placed them at a disadvantage.
In a critical study created by Amber Buck named “The Invisible Interface: MS Word in the Writing Center”, Buck gives two student opportunities to work with Microsoft Words interface versus a paper written interface. Buck’s development and survey of the interactions between the two students and their written work gives a distinct response to how college student work with these education related interfaces. In her particular study she looks to the writing center, a place that provides inclusive help, regardless of your background or major. Buck’s study gives only a small glimpse of what a student might encounter when writing for a college course, and she seems aware of the lack of support students are receiving due to changing technology, “there is a need to examine the use of the computer interface in the tutoring session, to determine the ways in which technology changes these conferences and to develop effective practices for the inclusion of computers into writing center tutoring sessions” (Buck, 397). The survey helps attest to her pleas as she chooses to watch very different student from different backgrounds. The chosen demographic should be highlighted because some student participants are at master level programs and still were not able to fully grasp Word’s interface completely, an interface they likely used throughout their entire educational career. Collectively the participants end up conflicted about what it is that Word can and cannot do for their writing The larger part of this study is the undertaught interface of Word and its chosen technological platform, “This study suggests, then, that a greater attention to the use of computers, and specifically word processing programs, is needed in order to assist students with their writing in ways that are consistent with the mission of the writing center” (Buck, 411). Buck emphasized that college institutions should be able to maintain students learning through their technological advocacy.
The solution Buck has is simple: there needs to be a redirected approach to show and teach interface to students, specifically community college students, so that they may have a better grasp on what these interfaces can do for them. This interface, like many other required interfaces in colleges, are just one of many that students are not taught but are deemed necessary while in attendance. Moreover, the challenge of changing the relationship with the tutor and the tutee was also emphasized. In a larger scope, there is a need to change in the relationship with how professors interact with their own assigned interfaces. In the study, the student asked the tutor questions and it was quickly deflected due to their own lack of knowledge, and much like real life, professors are often not in a complete understanding with how their own program’s interface work. This then brings on an even larger challenge of changing what interfaces professors are allowed to use in accordance with their own familiarity. Professors, like their fellow institutions, have the same responsibility of inclusivity, and like Buck has revealed, the institutions that are under prepared often have student that are underprepared as well. Buck’s study only highlighted the struggles of this singular, but popular interface that is used through different colleges. Although, with the rise of different word processing programs with completely different interfaces, it would be beneficial to all parties to have a designated appropriate program, possibly like Word, and have a clear understanding of the extent these programs are able to have in students writing process. Buck’s study gives all these concerns a foundational scope on how there are many different pathways that could potentially solve these deeply embedded issues within the ignore demographic. Nonetheless, Buck’s solution still stands, and could potentially be utilized in a community college course for the introduction portions of enrollments.
Looking at Future Effects that Struggling Students may have with Digital Interface
For many students, college is a way to achieve greater opportunities, however, some students may find college course overwhelming due to the chosen interface and may end up dropping out. Because interfaces are not emphasized during the enrollment period, students are often submerged in an unfamiliar learning environment that requires much more explanation than is ever given. Courses that are completely online or partially seem to have a larger number of student dropout rates, and this is cause for alarm, as online and hybrid course make up a mass of college courses throughout educational institutions (Park & Choi, 207&215). While the average student attempting to enroll into college may not ever interact with the college online, the purpose of emphasizing the online courses is to show the amplified complications students may have when working solely through a device. These online students may only have contact with their professors through video chats, or emails, and may have to work through plenty of platforms that have unfamiliar interfaces. However, the relevant course material may take up a majority of the student’s attention and may end up interfering with their attention to working through the required interface. In a study titled “Factors Influencing Adult Learners' Decision to Drop Out or Persist in Online Learning” by Ji-Hye Park and Hee Jun Choi, a certain amount of college adult online learners were examined in order to understand why the online dropout rate is steadily increasing.
One portion of the study examined the findings of how external circumstances as well as internal ones began to collide in a setting surrounded by interface, “course design strategies and learners’ motivation should be prioritized at the course development stage in order to make the course participatory and interesting and to keep learners engaged” (Park & Choi, 215). These findings further reveal how students are handling issues they are having online, and in this case, it is course design and learner’s interest within the course to produce a successful outcome. However, it may seem almost impossible to keep student’s interest if they are working against understanding material or ever reaching the material when there are working technological barriers. Understanding relevant interfaces becomes, arguably, the largest factors in course design, as well as reaching appropriate learning material. After struggling with designated interfaces in course management systems like Canvas or Blackboard student may not ever get the opportunity to grasp the material. Navigation through these sorts of interfaces not only becomes essentially their classroom environment, but sometimes counts for graded assignments that are not as easily accessible due to lack of knowledge. However, in the case that the learner understand their chosen interface and can easily find announcements, discussion board, due dates, and relevant material in relation to class, then the student’s chances of completion are much higher, “study also showed that dropout had significant differences in perception of learner satisfaction. In other words, learners are less likely to drop out when they are satisfied with their courses.” (Park & Choi, 215). Course satisfaction stems from understanding the material, which can be attributed to many factors, however in an online circumstance there is an abundance of material that is hiding in a program’s interface that can only be viewed through that specific understanding. If at any point students begin to lose sight of what the course entails, then their risk of leaving the course grows at an alarming rate. External issues combined, as mentioned before, not only amplify these constraints but also highlight larger issues that stem from a larger and much more complex problem, that would otherwise be easily solved if the student’s interface limitations had been addressed.
Digital Interface During Remote Learning and Beyond
In the early months of 2020, students and teachers were forced to learn remotely, some without any prior training. Some students continued through the summer sessions in their colleges and trudged along, though they were vocal about the difficulties, they persisted. Once classes began to formulate a pattern in the Fall of 2020, courses were more or less mirrored to work like a typical online course and utilized learning managements platforms like Blackboard and Canvas (Kelly& Columbus, 3). While professors did their best attempting to manage coursework, some students were not as keen to the online format. According to Andrew P. Kelly and Rooney Columbus in a survey title “College in the Time of Coronavirus: CHALLENGES FACING AMERICAN HIGHER EDUCATION”, there were and still are a number of limitations that are currently hindering college learning processes. In their focus on students “An April survey of over 3,000 continuing college students by the education technology firm Top Hat found that most students felt that emergency online instruction was unengaging and inferior to their typical face to face experience” (Kelly& Columbus 3). Learning in the Covid climate has indeed changed the way we have interacted with any online platform; nevertheless, students are struggling to see the value in education now that they have been forcefully pushed onto virtual learning. There is a limitation that has been foregrounded during the move, and because of the abruptness there was never a chance to help students fully understand their surrounding interfaces. The current differences from online instructions versus face to face instruction are the means in which students received their information. Information that is fundamental to a number of things like passing the current course, preparing for a following course, or preparation for an entire career. The interest that face to face classrooms have is accessibility to every part of the classroom. This can be seen as a simple interaction between student and professor and then receiving an immediate response, something that can become increasingly difficult within virtual learning.
Nonetheless, like school portals, leaning management platform’s interfaces are advertised as simple enough for student to grasp without prior knowledge. However, students are struggling to see how the material is now engaging when it is not the material that has changed, but the chosen venue. Since professors now need different platforms and applications in order to supplement learning, it highlights the same issue as before: different digital interfaces are difficult. And like before, professors and institutions are not taking the time to fully introduce these particular pieces of instructions. Of course, the move online was forced, and many instructors had no choice but to move along without option. Needless to say, institutions could have easily made tutorials that would otherwise smoothed the transition between the students and the online world.
But tutorials for different platforms for one course would be difficult to implement, even if the intention is to use many applications to better encompass a traditional classroom setting. These supplementary applications, bolstering their complete learning objectives, are meant to enhance the classroom’s interactive environment when learning remotely. But these applications are all from different companies, or serve different purposes, there is not enough time in a semester or quarter for all teacher and students to fully grasp what all these platforms can fully provide for institutions, while learning the main course subject as well. Although we see teachers struggling to stay afloat when working in their academic setting, it is students who are reaching the point of failure due to the current climate, “research suggest that socioeconomically disadvantaged and less academically prepared students are much more likely to struggle in online courses” (Kelly& Columbus, 4). These statistics further amplify that current students who encounter any sort of hindering background will likely have a continuing battle with multiple interfaces.
The reasoning behind why students are struggling now seems to be highlighted with the current quarantined climate. Online interfaces were never taken into account when different courses, online specially, were made. Now with Covid consistently lingering, the scramble that happened in March has left many educators confused as to how they will further provide their services. Community college professors now need to find a comfortable interface that they themselves are able to understand and are able to teach. Especially during this time as classes are likely to continue to grow, “summer enrollments have not declined as much as institutional leaders initially expected,” meaning that if enrollments never ceased, then professor are likely going to teach full classrooms remotely for a while (Kelly& Columbus, 5). And it would be the institutions, teacher, and students’ best interest to create a comfortable interface tutorial, or one that could be taught with enough time that would allow students to easily gain access to their chosen course materials.
Possible Solution for Relevant Digital Interfaces within a Community College Settings
When students enter any educational institutions there is always a lingering checklist that needs to be taken care of. Some of these things may be applying to their preferred college, preparing for orientations, turning in transcripts, or simply obtaining a letter of recommendation. The lists of tasks are only a small portion of what different educational institution requires for a student to enroll and attend classes. While some of the checklist may take months, it is rare that any of the necessary list causes any damage to the student’s learning capability. Yet the need to have mastered the institution’s required interfaces do not seem to be on the list of requirements to enroll in any particular school. As it has been implemented throughout this entire reading, the demand for necessary technological interfaces are lost within the enrollment process and is only introduced once students have solidified their place at these colleges.
However, after extensive research, the scholars that have been cited in this reading have all come up with a similar solution. Their solution is not only simple, but comprehensive when considering how detrimental digital interfaces can be to a student’s academic future. As mentioned, there are many academic steps student have to take when enrolling in any higher education institution. Highlighting college readiness and the orientation process where most students receive information about their college, this process can be a model as a prerequisite that student must encounter in order to complete enrollment. However, instead of showing students what their college services are, this course would follow a similar fashion as a traditional course, but this prerequisite course would mimic the length of a fast track course. The literal length of the course would have to be chosen by the institutions, as only the college knows how many different interfaces their students should be required to learn for academic success. In general, the purpose of the course’s length is meant to encourage student to accomplish the goal of learning the intended interface without the load of an entire course. On a similar note, the length is not meant to extend the students stay longer than the recommended two year at a community institute. The features of the intended course are also meant to highlights the importance of the material, because it would be strategically applied as course needed for enrollment. The shorter format would likely make the course much more appealing for students that fall under a marginalized category, and therefore assist those that were not necessarily able to access the digital interface information. This would also allow those same students to come into general education courses at a much more equal level during their academic career. While student drop out for various reasons, interface complexities could ease the load for student struggling through these types of issues.
The overall intention of such courses would be to introduce relevant digital interface material that is necessary and unique to that particular college. This portion of the course’s bulk should be chosen by the institution itself as different colleges used common interfaces throughout majors and classes. This is when learning management platforms like Blackboard and Canvas could potentially be used as a foundation for the course. The chosen college should then incorporate different digital interfaces that would be vital to students if they so choose to take a face to face, online or hybrid class in the future. Though it is important to note that in these relevant interfaces, there should be a considerable amount of interest for specific interfaces like Microsoft Word, since Word has consistently been the choice of writing platform for many colleges. The chosen college’s core ideology is meant for inclusivity and therefore should be used in instances like these courses. In a larger sense these courses would ultimately provide community college students with an encompassing and inclusive education in digital interface, which in turn would then allow for a greater academic success rate.
Conclusion: Digital Interfaces are Difficult, and Students are In Need
Digital interfaces were brought to the forefront of learning in the early months of 2020. The disadvantages students faced during that time only highlighted that colleges were sending their students into their institutions ill prepared for their unique workings. These issues became much more mounting towards student that came from marginalized backgrounds due to their lack of technological opportunity. At a national scale, various students were sent into higher education courses without proper readiness skills, and this then caused a larger impact to those students who were already in danger of failing. Studies on common digital interfaces like Microsoft Word gave a glimpse of how student who have been in in college for many years still struggled with the innerworkings of certain college requires digital interfaces. The use of any word processing program is inescapable in a two-year college, but the study only further exemplifies that teachers (professors, tutors, or anyone teaching) were at a loss as to what these programs really had to offer. Students then found themselves in an even larger issues by becomes overwhelmed by the chosen online format. Though not all student who struggle with interface will specifically be online, this emphasis was placed to bring attention to the most extreme platform of digital learning. Online student learners’ external circumstances were caused by everyday living, while internal circumstances revolve around their studies online. Without appropriate course design that allowed manageable interface, students would begin to lose motivation for their course and eventually drop out. Course satisfaction also play a large role in motivation, and through these significant avenues of digital interface in an online setting, students are able to understand their learning material at a higher degree
Currently, students are learning remotely, and the need to truly understand digital interface has been exemplified through the situation of the pandemic. During these intense time, students and teachers are crying out due to the lack of support that both parties are receiving when using supplementary applications. These applications are meant to help replace the feeling of being in a classroom, but similar to Microsoft Word, there was not enough significant on the matter of digital interface to prepare effectively. Aside from such significance, there is not enough time now to implement one application that can fully encompass the classroom, so institutions have to rely on many applications to do this. And at times, too many applications create the problem of learning those platform’s effectively. As a possible solution, community colleges should offer and require students to attend a course in which relevant interfaces can be taught to students prior to their attendance. This course should specify which interfaces are being used in specific platforms and applications during the student’s time at their chosen institution. The course is a means to help the community college population as a whole, and increase comfort and success rate in institutions that offer any course that deals with digital interface.
Work Cited
Buck, Amber M. “The Invisible Interface: MS Word in the Writing Center.” Computers and Composition, vol. 25, no. 4, 2008, pp. 396–415., doi:10.1016/j.compcom.2008.05.003. Accessed 14 Nov. 2020.
Goldrick-Rab, Sara. “Challenges and Opportunities for Improving Community College Student Success.” Review of Educational Research, vol. 80, no. 3, 2010, pp. 437–469. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40927288. Accessed 14 Nov. 2020.
Ji-Hye Park, and Hee Jun Choi. “Factors Influencing Adult Learners' Decision to Drop Out or Persist in Online Learning.” Journal of Educational Technology & Society, vol. 12, no. 4, 2009, pp. 207–217. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/jeductechsoci.12.4.207. Accessed 14 Nov. 2020.
Kelly, Andrew P., and Rooney Columbus. College in the Time of Coronavirus: CHALLENGES FACING AMERICAN HIGHER EDUCATION. American Enterprise Institute, 2020, www.jstor.org/stable/resrep25358. Accessed 14 Nov. 2020.
Selfe, Cynthia L., and Richard J. Selfe. “The Politics of the Interface: Power and Its Exercise in Electronic Contact Zones.” College Composition and Communication, vol. 45, no. 4, 1994, p. 480., doi:10.2307/358761. Accessed 14 Nov. 2020.
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